LEAD

Metaphorically, moving ahead, often but not in cybernetics, the opposite of lag. In the cybernetics of regulation, lead refers to the ability of a regulator to extrapolate (seeprediction) the behavior of the regulated system (beyond or ahead of available data) and act on that future state of the system which is anticipated to coincide with the arrival of the corrective action. Thus the lead may compensate for the lag involved in a feedback loop provided and to the extent that the behavior of the regulated system is predictable. (Krippendorff)